Andrew Hammond and the Ottawa Senators will look for a sixth straight win tonight when they play host to the lowly Toronto Maple Leafs. Hammond enters the game with a 12-0-1 record to go along with a 1.55 goals-against average since getting called up from Binghamton.

The Sens enter tonight’s action two points back of the Boston Bruins for the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference. Since the last meeting between the Leafs and Senators (Jan. 21), Ottawa is 17-6-2 while Toronto has gone 5-17-3.

The talks of an affiliation change reportedly began with news of the Florida Panthers partnering with Portland. The Portland Pirates had been the affiliate of the Arizona Coyotes while San Antonio had been partnered with Florida.

The Dispatch’s report cites a story from radio station WHTK in Rochester, N.Y., which has the Colorado Avalanche looking to move from Lake Erie to San Antonio. The station also reported the Arizona Coyotes are now interested in Springfield, MA as a possibility for their AHL club.

The aforementioned relocations would then leave Lake Erie without an NHL partner

Springfield has been the AHL affiliate of the Columbus Blue Jackets since 2010, but according to the Dispatch’s sources, there is a mutual opt-out clause in the contract between the two clubs this summer.

Brought back into the role of starting goalie since the injury to Ryan Miller, Eddie Lack has now appeared in 13 consecutive games for the Vancouver Canucks.

And it’s very likely he’ll continue to see the bulk of the work, as that team fights for a playoff spot in the Western Conference. On Thursday, the Canucks jumped out to a 2-0 lead on the Columbus Blue Jackets and then collapsed in a 6-2 loss on home ice. Lack was pulled in the third period. It was a bad night for him and a bad night for the team in front of him, too.

The Canucks play the L.A. Kings on Saturday in a huge divisional match-up. The Canucks lead the Kings by two points in the Pacific Division, and are 0-3 this season against the defending Stanley Cup champions.

“You know, Eddie’s played well going into (Thursday’s) game. I thought he’s responded well to being the No. 1 goalie and … giving our team a chance to win games. Having said that, we need good goaltending,” said Benning.

“I don’t think he’s tired. But I think the plan is to try to get Jacob in maybe a game or two, but that depends on how we do, too, and the importance of the games.”

Meanwhile, Benning said Miller, out since Feb. 22 with a knee sprain, is on schedule in his recovery, despite a report earlier this week that Miller wouldn’t be back before playoffs, and that he skated Wednesday.

“He felt pretty good,” said Benning. “He’s working with our medical staff on a day-to-day basis and they’re working with him to get him healthy and up and going, so everyday he seems like he’s getting a little bit better. But we don’t have a timetable yet for him as to when he’s going to be back.”

The Boston Bruins can’t afford to have many more nights like this. They certainly held their own against the Ottawa Senators and had more success opposing goaltender Andrew Hammond than any of his previous adversaries, but the Bruins still suffered a 6-4 loss tonight. While that was happening Boston’s only other serious rival in the battle for the second Wild Card seed, the Florida Panthers, earned a 3-1 victory against Detroit.

The Bruins still hold their Wild Card spot, but the Senators are now just two points behind despite having played in one less game. Florida is five points shy of the Bruins.

An obvious case can be made that Ottawa is the bigger threat to the Bruins at this point. Not only are the Senators closer in the standings, but they’ve been unreal lately with a 13-1-1 record beginning with Hammond’s first start of the 2014-15 campaign. The Senators have a great opportunity to continue that hot streak on Saturday against the lowly Toronto Maple Leafs, which they will play an additional two times after that contest.

By contrast, Florida has been largely treading water lately, but the Panthers got starting goaltender Roberto Luongo back tonight from a shoulder injury. He turned aside 25 of 26 shots in his return. Luongo’s return should help the Panthers cause, but more importantly, Florida has a golden opportunity to do direct damage to Boston as its scheduled to play against the Bruins three times in its final 11 games. The first of those meetings will occur on Saturday.

Meanwhile the Bruins have now lost three straight games in what has proven to be a roller-coaster season. They’ve come back from some serious cold streaks already in 2014-15, but they likely can’t afford to endure another with the Wild Card race this tight.

Jaromir Jagr’s climb up the NHL’s all-time leaderboards continued tonight with another huge milestone.

With the help of 21-year-old Jonathan Huberdeau and 19-year-old Aleksander Barkov, Jaromir Jagr, who is older than both of them combined, found the back of the net for the 718th time in his career to give Florida a 1-0 lead over Detroit. Jagr has now surpassed Phil Esposito to claim sole ownership of fifth place on the NHL’s career goals list.

If Jagr is able to extend his career into the 2015-16 campaign, then he’ll have a chance of surpassing Marcel Dionne and perhaps even Brett Hull. Jagr trials Dionne by 13 goals and Hull by 23 markers.

Brandon Pirri scored for Florida less than four minutes later and Jagr assisted on that marker. With two points tonight, Jagr is up to 1,791 in his career. He ranks in fifth place on the all-time leaderboard in that category as well, just behind Ron Francis (1,798).